Over the past few weeks, we’ve been hearing tons of casting rumors surrounding Star Wars: Episode VII. According to Saoirse Ronan, one of the actresses who recently auditioned for a role, “everyone” has auditioned for the new Star Wars film. More specifically, we’ve heard rumors that Jonathan Rhys Meyers, David Oyelowo, Michael B. Jordan, Benedict Cumberbatch, Daniel Day-Lewis, Rachel Hurd-Wood, and Alex Pettyfer might be cast. While no actors have been officially cast in the film, new rumors are suggesting we might get some major announcements in the immediate future.

Ali Arikan, the film critic for Dipnot TV, tweeted some information about when the Mouse House plans to announce something concrete about Star Wars: Episode VII. Arikan tweets:

So here’s what I’m hearing about Episode VII. Casting and title announcements are imminent, possibly today or tomorrow. But that’s not all. I’ve heard word that there’ll be an announcement trailer/teaser featuring Luke. Tweeting this so I look like Nikki Finke if/when it happens.

Devin Faraci of Badass Digest also tweeted that something official from Disney and Lucasfilm is coming soon.

It’s been one year since Disney announced that they acquired Lucasfilm for $4.4 billion, with the promise to relaunch the Star Wars saga with a new trilogy. Releasing new information for the one-year anniversary makes sense, but supposedly the new film will not be in theaters for another two years, so it also might seem premature to expect anything major at this point.

Meanwhile, JediNews is reporting that Disney plans to release a teaser trailer for Episode VII in front of Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier in April 2014. The teaser would include the film’s official title and release date, which is believed to be November 11, 2015. If true, this would be the first Star Wars movie not to be released during the summer movie-going season.

It’s believed that production is behind, which is why the film would be released later than expected, and summer 2015 is already bloated with giant blockbusters such as The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Terminator 5, and Man of Steel 2. Disney also wouldn’t want Marvel and Lucasfilm to compete directly with each other, so a fall release for Star Wars makes sense for Disney’s bottom line.

JediNews is also reporting that Disney and Lucasfilm could announce something on October 23rd, but there are three obstacles in their way. The first is Apple’s rumored iPad announcement, which would fall on October 22nd. Secondly, Marvel doesn’t want Lucasfilm to take away press from the upcoming Thor: The Dark World, which is released on November 8th. Finally, Harrison Ford doesn’t want Disney to announce anything until he finishes global press for Ender’s Game, which releases on November 1st.

With anything Star Wars related, take all information with a grain of salt until we get official confirmations from Disney. The fact of the matter is, Episode VII is arguably the biggest movie of the decade, so nothing will take away from an official announcement. Star Wars trumps new iPads, Thor, and Ender’s Game, so it makes sense for Disney to announce something sooner rather than later.

Comments

Considering how often we hear rumors and someone thinks we’re this close to getting something real I’ve come to the conclusion that they won’t tell us anything. There won’t even be trailers. The movie will just release one day with out any notice, but of course that information will leak so people will be there. The previews will be twice as long as normal, just so everyone is even more pumped when the movie finally starts. Star Wars will pop up as the theme song kicks in, but right as the crawl starts the film will burn out and Mickey Mouse will walk out and laugh at us all.